Stephen Colbert is one conservative who hasn’t abandoned Cliven Bundy, the armed Nevada rancher who doesn’t believe in the federal government — and happens to have some crazy ideas about African-Americans.

Fox News personalities, among others, touted Bundy as a kind of folk hero after he refused to pay federal grazing fees, despite his cattle grazing on federal land. Gun-toting supporters came to his ranch to help protect him from the government. Sean Hannity repeatedly interviewed him on “Hannity.”

“By bravely standing against the forces of paying bills, Bundy became a hero to conservatives like Sean Hannity, who turned Bundy’s 10-gallon hat all the way up to 11,” Colbert said. “Man, Hannity ate up that story so hard Bundy should have charged him grazing fees.”

Colbert joined in, performing a folk song about Bundy on Thursday’s “Colbert Report.”

But many of Bundy’s public defenders backed away after footage emerged of Bundy offering these opinions about African-Americans: “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton?”

Colbert sympathetically explained that Bundy is just being consistent.

“Bundy doesn’t believe in the federal government, so it would be hypocritical of him to believe in the Emancipation Proclamation,” Colbert said.

Bundy later clarified his comments — by wondering if African-Americans weren’t happier under slavery.